1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of servicing information handling system failures, and more particularly to a method and system for verifying information handling system hardware component failure diagnosis.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
The wide variety of uses and flexibility of information handling systems has resulted in the manufacture of a wide variety of hardware and software information handling system configurations. One difficulty with operation of a wide variety of hardware and software configurations is that a failure of an information handling system is often difficult to diagnose and correct. Typically, information handling system manufacturers have service centers that aid information handling system users with failures. Generally, the user calls a toll free number of a service center and describes the difficulty to a service technician who attempts to diagnose and correct the problem by describing corrective actions for the user to perform. However, user calls to a service center are expensive for the manufacturer and often an inefficient use of technician time. For instance, resolution of hardware versus software difficulties typically rely on different types of expertise. Thus, isolating and correcting a difficulty may result in the user having to talk with different technicians and, ultimately, end up with replacement hardware components being shipped to the user.
In order to aid in resolution of information handling system difficulties, diagnostics modules are sometimes installed on information handling systems, either during manufacture or during subsequent use, such as through a diagnosis performed on the information handling system through the Internet. If a user has difficulty with the information handling system, the user runs the diagnostics module to attempt to isolate the problem, thus reducing the time needed by the user to talk with a technician. Further, a hardware component failure diagnosed by a diagnostics module is more likely to be correct than a technician analysis accomplished by a phone conversation and thus use of a diagnostics module reduces the risk that a replacement component will be shipped when the original equipment is not faulty. In some instances, seventy percent of hardware components replaced by technician diagnosis cannot duplicate the reported failure on return to the manufacturer. Although the use of the diagnostic module improves the accuracy of hardware component failure diagnosis, often users and technicians fail to run the diagnostics modules, instead relying on operational indications to deduce failed hardware components. Information handling system manufacturers have little opportunity to determine if the diagnostics module was run or to determine the accuracy of the diagnostics module at detecting component failures except to test returned components for duplication of reported failures.